Congresswoman Faces Increasing Skepticism

By JAMES BROOKE

Published: January 22, 1996

SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 20—
With a month to digest charges that their Congresswoman was elected with illegal campaign contributions, few people in this family-oriented state seem to accept Representative Enid Waldholtz's defense that her husband made all the money decisions.

"It's one thing to discover that you married a creep," said Charlene White, a hairstylist who regrets her 1994 vote for Mrs. Waldholtz. "But it's something else to say that you are so busy that you do not know what is going on with your money."

Bill Coleman, a real estate broker agreed, saying: "She knew what was going on all along."

In a gamble to save her political career, the freshman Republican conducted a news conference last month that was broadcast live here in its four-and-a-half-hour entirety. Appealing to Utah's patriarchal traditions, she pleaded ignorance of money matters and blamed her husband, Joseph, for a series of financial misdeeds: failure to pay thousands of dollars in state and Federal taxes, failure to file a joint 1994 Federal tax return, and failure to account properly for $1.5 million her father pumped into her campaign.

Nationwide, the Waldholtz drama first captured attention in mid-November when Mr. Waldholtz disappeared for a week after Federal investigators followed a trail of bounced checks and unpaid credit card bills to his door. A Federal grand jury is investigating the couple's finances, including her $1.8 million election campaign, the most expensive for the House in 1994.

After the news conference, Utah Republican leaders appealed for "an incubation period" to allow time for the facts to be investigated. Jumping to her side, one national Republican group said: "We will support her 110 percent."

But, after one month's incubation, Utah public opinion is decidedly skeptical of Mrs. Waldholtz's tearful attempt to shift all the blame to her husband.

In polls conducted for The Deseret News, portions of voters who say she should retire after her term ends in January climbed from 57 percent in November, to 64 percent in December, to 75 percent in January. In a Salt Lake Tribune poll, 69 percent of respondents said she should not run again.

"Her political career is all but over," Bob Bernick Jr., the Deseret News political editor, wrote last week.

An occasional defender can be found here.

"She was not too smart in picking a partner, but she's only guilty of being naive," argued Dan Mollenhauer, a taxi driver. A Mormon from California, he added: "Some of these Mormon girls in Utah grow up in a very sheltered way."

But most seem to agree with the assessment of James E. Shelledy, editor of The Tribune, who said: "She won't resign -- but it's almost impossible for her to run again."

Last week, The Tribune, the state's largest newspaper, ran a cartoon showing state Republican elders solemnly burying a coffin labeled: "Enid's Political Future." In the background, the Congresswoman runs up, shouting: "Hey guys -- look: I just amended my tax return. Now can I get back to being a rising star in the Republican Party?"

Once called "a Mormon Maggie Thatcher," the 37-year-old lawyer was married by Utah's Governor, Michael O. Leavitt. After her election in 1994, another Republican fan, Newt Gingrich, appointed her to the powerful House Rules Committee -- the first time for a freshman representative in 70 years.

But in a recent interview, Governor Leavitt distanced himself from his former protege, saying: "She would have to look at a race as if she were starting over again in politics."

In a measure of how far Utah's Mormon establishment has turned from Mrs. Waldholtz, The Deseret News, a newspaper owned by the church, has joined a suit to open her divorce proceedings to public scrutiny. Only last summer, the newspaper lavished news space on Salt Lake's Congressional Representative, publishing full-page photographs of her in maternity clothes.

The beleaguered Congresswoman has declined to say whether she will run for re-election. But two months before the filing deadline, the list of Republican candidates is growing fast.

One candidate, David Harmer, was her 1994 campaign manager and Washington chief of staff. In a news conference here, Mr. Harmer referred to the financial scandal, saying: "She has no one to blame but herself."

Disenchantment with Mrs. Waldholtz reflects widespread skepticism over her repeated denial of any knowledge of financial improprieties.

In a letter last week to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, the Congresswoman, a former corporate lawyer, wrote about "thousands of transactions and millions of dollars, about most of which I had no personal knowledge."

"For most of our marriage, Joseph Waldholtz received and kept all bank statements," she wrote in a letter that accompanied amended financial disclosure forms. "All credit card statements went to Joseph Waldholtz and not to me, and I had no effective control over those accounts."

Referring to calls by bankers about bounced checks, she wrote of her husband: "He carefully and craftily made efforts to keep those calls and reports from me."

Previous errors in a 1994 financial disclosure form, she said, were partly because "I signed a blank form."

In the amended forms filed last week, she estimated her overdue back taxes between $50,000 and $130,000. She did not explain why she did not file a 1994 Federal tax return.

But her legal woes may be just beginning.

Last week, an F.B.I. task force searched the Waldholtzes house here and interviewed former campaign officials, bankers and others believed to have information about the finances.

Next week, Representative Waldholtz is to testify for a second time before a Federal grand jury in Washington.

In addition to blaming her husband, the Congresswoman's supporters seek to portray Mr. Waldholtz as a homosexual and a drug abuser.

"The maid found a whole box of videos and photos of male homosexual pornography," Charles H. Roistacher, the Congresswoman's lawyer, said, referring to the couple's hillside home here.

Ladonna Y. Lee, a Washington public relations executive under contract to the Representative, added about Joe Waldholtz: "It also appears there was abuse of prescription drugs."

In an interview published in Thursday's Tribune, Joe Waldholtz brushed aside these charges, saying: "I've heard it all before."

Mr. Waldholtz, a 32-year-old political operative, hinted that he might turn on his wife. Referring to his chance to testify before the grand jury, he said: "I can't wait."

Outside this grand jury probe and an investigation by the Federal Electoral Commission, Mr. Waldholtz faces several legal battles in Pittsburgh, his home town.

Indeed, Utah's Congresswoman appears to be only the latest in a long line of women swindled by Mr. Waldholtz.

His father and a cousin are suing for the return of $680,000 that they say he misappropriated from his 87-year-old paternal grandmother. His stepmother is demanding the return of $100,000 that she says she lent him.

And last week, his mother, Barbara, filed suit for the return of $86,300 that she lent him over the last decade.

Asked on Wednesday about $2 million that Enid Waldholtz claims is in his possession, Mr. Waldholtz told The Tribune, "Enid and I spent it."

Photo: Representative Enid Waldholtz is scheduled to testify for asecond time before a Federal grand jury. (Paul Hosefros/The New York Times)